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03 September 2008

Responsible Reporting???

As I monitor the blog posts on CNN's coverage of the Republican Convention, in particular Gov. Palin's speech I am absolutely appalled by the biased one sided coverage they present on their website. Approximately 98% of the posts are negative towards the Palin, McCain, and the Republican party. Really only 2% of the people who watched the speech and then checked the coverage on the various news websites to include CNN supported and liked Palin's speech?? Really is this responsible reporting?? I flipped back and forth between FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC to get their initial reactions, and the CNN commentators were absolutely silent. Now many of the news correspondents are stating that this was such an historic speech, one of the best of all time, yet apparently none of the "intelligent" bloggers for CNN seem to agree. This is just a prime example of how a corporate business wants to slant the information and the views of their customers to support their own agenda. It is absolutely embarrassing. Isn't it the duty of the media to provide information (hopefully as unbiased as possible) to the public on the issues, not to editorialize everything according to their opinion and beliefs?

By the way as I am watching CNN right now, Arizona just voted to officially nominate John McCain, and guess what the banner said at the bottom of their screen, "John McCain won the party nomination at the DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION!!" Are you kidding me?? Can they really take themselves seriously as a news organization or a entertainment show for the democratic left??

Seriously responsible reporting. This is absolutely embarrassing and a sad state of affairs for those in the public who want the information on both sides of an issue to make an informed decision themselves. If you don't want to be informed, have someone form your opinion for you, go ahead and believe what they tell you to believe. That is our current media's specialty!!

Interesting – the CNN experts gave Gov Palin four ‘A’s and one ‘B’s. Other comments:

CNN's Wolf Blitzer said “It wasn't just a home run, it may have been a grand slam”. "A very auspicious debut," said NBC's Tom Brokaw. It was a "perfect populist pitch," said CBS' Jeff Greenfield. "Terrific," said Mort Kondracke on Fox News Channel."A star is born," said Chris Wallace on Fox.Anderson Cooper, CNN, also said "A star is born".

Yet, the average poll grade from the readers of CNN.com is an ‘F’ (5315 votes so far). The article was written well about her speech (except noting that perhaps a Bush aide wrote the speech), I just think most of the public who watch CNN had already made up their mind.

CNN tends to set a professional example of nonbiased reporting, in my opinion as a conservative-leaning journalist.

I grew up around Republican campaigning in Kansas, and I can tell you that it's very difficult for audience members fueled by excitement of an election not to be biased. Good journalists know this, and have to work hard to check opinions at the door. Sometimes, it's the audience that is biased and disappointed the journalists do not share their opinions. Sometimes, journalists purposefully use biased commentators - at least one who is left-biased and one who is right-biased - to get the typical reactions those biased audience members might have.

But you're right, sometimes journalists do expose their opinions in stories. It's not a good idea because reporters are rarely experts in the subjects we write about.

I did see one such example last night after McCain's speech. A local KC television reporter made a comment that "obviously, McCain didn't have quite the rhetoric of Obama..." That's bad reporting, not just bias, because the difference between Obama's and McCain's speech abilities is an opinion and can't be distilled into a fact.

You're entitled to your opinions, of course, I'm just trying to share an insider's view. It's very important to let journalists know when you feel they're not being professional because it helps us know how to better serve our audiences.

I attached the website with the initial review of Gov Palin's speech with commentary blogs by those who wrote in. The review from CNN was very generic because it was just the intial summary of the event. What I was alluding to were the number of blog entries that were critical of her speech compared to those who were favorable to the speech. There is a discrepancy in the numbers for and against. CNN controls the content of what blog entries are displayed on their website, therefore they provide the impression of a bias against the RNC. Due to the latest poll numbers I have a tough time believing that more people were completely appalled or against the speech versus those who supported it.

I do find it very interesting that you believe that CNN is a rather non-biased new source when they were regularly know as the Clinton News Network.

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